When I got married, way back in the last century, big puffy sleeves complemented with bold colors and super shiny fabrics still ruled the world of weddings. Wedding gowns were over the top, bridesmaid dresses were the stuff nightmares are made of, and cake toppers were often sickly sentimental or big, gaudy affairs.
I got married in a redwood grove, in flat shoes, and surrounded by a carpet of rose petals I gathered and dried myself. For the cake I wanted simple — a few flowers, a few tiers, and we were happy. But the cake topper became a bit of a problem. We didn’t like the big ones, and the traditional ones seemed out of place in the forest.
Finally, I decided to go with humor — I found a couple of bride and groom troll dolls with hair colors that matched ours. Trolls are native to the forest, I thought to myself. And to really make them ours, I cut some of the hair off the groom and carefully glued it to the face of the groom troll. My husband-to-be had a beard, and so did the cake topper groom.

The caterer joined in on the theme, and created some amazing sculptures out of vegetables — swans out of whole melons, groomsmen and the bride out of crookneck squash, and an assortment of flowers out of red cabbage, radishes, jicama, and green onions. I always thought they’d be fun to try to re-create as a DIY project.